{"id":290327,"date":"2026-07-16T15:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/linus-torvalds-to-critics-of-ai-coding-in-linux-fork-it-or-just-walk-away\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T15:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:35:07","slug":"linus-torvalds-to-critics-of-ai-coding-in-linux-fork-it-or-just-walk-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/linus-torvalds-to-critics-of-ai-coding-in-linux-fork-it-or-just-walk-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Linus Torvalds to critics of AI coding in Linux: “Fork it. Or just walk away.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linus Torvalds to critics of AI coding in Linux: “Fork it. Or just walk away.”<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/ai\/2026\/07\/linus-torvalds-to-critics-of-ai-coding-in-linux-fork-it-or-just-walk-away\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-16 15:18:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: arstechnica.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The widespread introduction of AI-powered coding tools has led to some dramatic splits between those integrating those tools into their workflows and anti-AI absolutists who don\u2019t want LLM-generated code anywhere near their projects. When it comes to the Linux kernel, though, creator and top-level maintainer Linus Torvalds said he is \u201cwilling to absolutely put my foot down\u201d in support of using AI tools to improve the longstanding open source project.<\/p>\n

Writing in a lengthy post on the Linux kernel mailing list this week, Torvalds said point-blank that \u201cLinux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it. Or just walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement came amid a lengthy thread arguing about the use of Sashiko, an \u201cagentic Linux kernel code review system\u201d that its creators claim can, in tests, independently find 53.6 percent of the bugs that would end up being fixed by human coders in later commits. But the tool can also waste maintainers\u2019 time by sending \u201cfalse positive\u201d reports of bugs that don\u2019t exist, at a rate Sashiko\u2019s maintainers estimate is \u201cwell within [the] 20% range.\u201d<\/p>\n

In discussing whether maintainers should be subjected to a flood of these kinds of automated, AI-powered bug report emails (true or false), one poster cited the Software Freedom Conservancy\u2019s recent statement that the open source community \u201cshould support, not just tolerate, those who outright reject LLM-gen-AI systems\u201d and that \u201cevery FOSS contributor deserves self-determination regarding LLM-gen-AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the face of that statement, Torvalds said that he rejects those who demand their open source projects not accept any LLM-generated code or revisions. \u201cWe\u2019re not forcing anybody to use [LLM tools], but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it,\u201d Torvalds said.<\/p>\n

…
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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